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Heater in a fermentation chamber

This is cut and pasted from a Facebook thread. I have had to look it up twice now and tired of Facebook's "bury it because it is an old topic" crap.
-Ken

Nick Lancy
March 24, 2014
fermentation chamber has officially gone live. Needs a couple finishing touches including a heating element for the hood as opposed to the light. Testing heating and cooling controls now. The controller was super cheap but only displays in Celsius which is a minor inconvenience. Glad I got the idea to hook a power outlet up to it so I can plug my cooler and heater in with both being independently controlled. Woodworking is definitely not my specialty but was nice to use all scrap wood I had lying around. Hoping to put the first beer in tomorrow. No more lugging carboys in and out of the basement. Woot!1960022_10202721760021857_547773114_n.jpg10151229_10202721759861853_712612182_n.jpg

Current beer projects: just drinking what is on tap while working around the house.

Dave Roberts
March 24 at 2:05pm
You can find them for cheaper than $23 too.

David McKnight
March 24 at 2:13pm
I spy an STC-1000....

Nick Lancy
March 24 at 2:18pm
Built the table it is on as well. The front folds up to create table space when doing beer and down to free up garage space when not.

Nick Lancy
March 24 at 2:18pm
Kevin, I'm trying what Dave suggested. Will let you know how it goes.

Ken Heaps
March 24 at 2:37pm
Is that a reptile heating pad? That's what I use. Works great.

Dave Roberts
March 24 at 2:41pm
It actually screws into a light bulb socket. The heating pad might be lower wattage, lower profile (ie less space) and another consideration if it's effective.

David McKnight
March 24 at 2:53pm
Ken, What size is the one that your using and do you remember what you paid? I found one labeled as "Repti-Therm Habitat Heater but at $155+ it's seems a bit pricey. Thinking there's probably a cheaper model somewhere.

Ken Heaps
April 7 at 9:16am
David, I found my notes... ReptiTherm heating pad from Petsmart for $48.99. Model RH-6. Since it is meant to go on the bottom glass of an aquarium, I stuck it to a sheet of glass that I lean against the wall in the lager box.

Ken Heaps
April 7 at 9:18am
I have had no problems heating 10+ gal of beer using that and a small fan, both hooked to a Ranco controller taking temperature readings from the middle of the carboy using a themowell from www.brewershardware.com.

Current beer projects: just drinking what is on tap while working around the house.